The ninth edition of PwC’s Private Business Barometer is now available at the touch of a screen as a free interactive edition available on the iPad.

Published twice annually, The PwC Private Business Barometer is a national, independent survey of more than 1000 Australian private businesses with an annual turnover of between AUD$10 and $100 million.

Produced in conjunction with Roy Morgan and Editor Group, the goal was to take the print version and create an interactive publication that was not a simple, flat digital replica of the print report. The result is a much more dynamic presentation of content – a fully interactive and immersive experience that invites engagement with the reader.

The interactive app enables iPad users to see, hear and touch insights from private business owners and management on growth, funding, people, business operations and other key issues impacting private business.

PwC Private Clients Partner Jason Daniels says, “The Barometer iPad app is a first for PwC Australia and has been designed specifically to deliver an innovative experience for users.”

“In developing it we have not adapted a PDF but created a complete digital publication. No registration is required, users are able to download and view completely free.”

“Our objective is to enable private businesses, entrepreneurs and high net wealth individuals to have intelligent, current business insight at their fingertips,” he said.

The app is available free on iTunes now

Listed property group FKP has worked with HS3 to help employees rediscover it’s brand story, and discover a new way of working together.

FKP is launching an internal social media platform to help employees collaborate and share information. The new platform promises to create speed of access to the right/ relevant information for employees own work, or for work to be delivered to customers.

Project manager Ian Leong said “My FKP allows for effective, open sharing of ideas and for employees to see how their efforts impact on FKP’s overall performance” “the updated platform will make teamwork easier and improve the delivery of important performance and management information”

He said She Said conducted research to discover true employee stories and experiences of how new technology has changed FKP, then and brought them to life in an entertaining visual storyboard. By combining authentic stories with that of the brand, the promise of the benefits of the new platform were framed in a truthful, believable context. Additionally, new facts about the company’s history were unearthed for the first time.

“FKP staff are spread over the country and have very different comfort levels with technology” said Leong “By using true stories from employees of different ages and varying length of tenures of up to 25 years, we were able to create a video that spoke to everyone”

My eldest son is 12 and fast becoming a teenager. All the physical and emotional signs are there. Since he started talking he has always been good company so I’ve been readying myself for the day when the hormones take over and all he does is grunt at me. That hasn’t happened yet and hopefully it won’t.

What I have recently noticed though is a change in my own behaviour. As my son becomes a teenager and needs me less in his every day life I have found myself looking for ways to interact with him. Unfortunately, I haven’t actually been doing a very good job of it. I’ve tried telling him about things that interest me and what has happened in my day only to be faced with an exasperated look and a ‘Why are you telling me this I don’t care!’

Not my son - for illustration purposes only!

My child has turned into me, and I into my mother, as I recall having the same exchanges with her when I was a teenager. I remember her desperately trying to engage me in conversation and it always being on topics that were of interest to her. Why should I care that Mary’s sister’s daughter is going out with the brother of someone or other –  it just wasn’t of any interest to me!

Now think about how you communicate with your customers. Are you acting like the parent of a teenager, trying to remain a part of your customer’s life but having no relevance? Are you just telling the customer what you want them to hear regardless of whether it adds value or has relevance in their life?

When you push content to your customer they are thinking just like a teenager ‘Why should I care?’ So you had better give them a good reason to. Find out what motivates them, what information can you give them that will help solve their problems or ignite their passions. Once you have got them listening to you there is always the opportunity to include your message in a relevant way.  The key is to think about what you’re customer wants to hear, not what you want to say.

So whilst you determine whether you are treating your customers like teenagers or not I’ll be posting comments on my son’s facebook page and telling him I love him via text!

Recently I’d been doing quite a lot of corresponding with a friend of mine using all the the ‘modern’ channels available to me – email,text, Facebook, MSN and of course phone. We all know how easy it is to shoot of an email with a link to a funny article or send a text saying ‘How are you today?’ They can help you keep the momentum in a relationship, allowing you to keep in touch without having to go to too much effort.

But the other day when I finally emptied my mailbox, the one in front of my house, not the one on my PC, I discovered something. I found that the ping of a text message doesn’t compare to a handwritten envelope. That evocative pictures in a powerpoint  presentation (created by someone unknown) can’t compare to a card that has been specially selected for you. No amount of clever copywriting can replace some simple and heartfelt words.  And that the deliberate act of someone posting something via ‘snail mail’ makes it all the more valuable and worth keeping.

Has all this access to ‘easy’ communication made our messages less meaningful?  Does this mean when we want someone to stand up and take notice of the really special messages we should do justice to their delivery as well? Its not just about the message – its how we say it and how we deliver it that is equally as important.

Next time you are deciding on how to communicate to your customers or prospects think about putting in the extra effort – it just may make all the difference. I know it worked on me!

Being outside of your comfort zone is a scary place to be. We have all been there before, and seem to quickly develop little walls we build up around ourselves in order to commence a process of nesting into our new environments. Trying something new or different effectively opens up little windows in our walls, and while exciting, can also be quite daunting and be a trigger for anxiety, stress, the dreaded feeling of being out of control, uncomfortable or the overall fear of failure.

Being a Gen Y female, I have grown to be comfortable with my boundaries. They are the bricks and mortar of my walls, which hug and protect me from the unfamiliar that is all around me. My walls have a convenient cloak of invisibility, so I don’t even feel the burden of having such limitations placed upon myself. In fact I feel free and limitless – because of the comfort of my invisible walls. However the walls, invisible as they may be, can confine us within our comfort zones, to the point where venturing over to the windows of new and exciting opportunities can be difficult steps to take.

Some of the changes we experience in life force us to not only peer into, but climb through these windows in our walls. Moving house, marriage, divorce, having children, experiencing the death of a family member, starting a new job – are all huge wall breakers. They shake the very foundations of the comfortable cloak we’ve created throughout our lives, and we’re put in a position where we have no other option but to turn those windows into doorways, so we can comfortably access both sides of our old and new lives – and somehow recreate a harmony within ourselves as we start to feel safe again in this new place.

For example (and this may seem like a small example but relevant nonetheless) I have a problem with preparing food. I’ve never enjoyed cooking, and never known why – because I thoroughly enjoy eating! But cooking, to me, like the idea of getting married or having children (I’m far too young for these events to occur, yet) is something that is way outside of my comfort zone. And I have developed a finely tuned taste for fast food as a result. Blessings of fast metabolisms and good genes aside, my pallet never seemed lacking in anything – and as such, I never acquired a desire to try exotic foods, let alone an aspiration to create my own cuisine.

But then a few things happened to me, recently in my life that changed the concept of my walls all together. And instead of just appearing to be invisible for convenience, I realised that in reality, they really weren’t there at all. I started a new job a few weeks ago as the Media Coordinator here at Nett. In doing so, I opened my ‘Monday-Friday, 9-5’ world up to a small business filled with big personalities. At Nett Magazine, I found a fantastic company, a fantastic role, the perfect cohort of colleagues, and the perfect avenue for renovating my brick walls.

Three days into my first week at Nett, we had a “team building” social evening organised through Victor’s Food. Victor Pisapia owns and runs his company, a small business that provides the ultimate cooking and team building experience. The Victor’s Food website proudly explains:

“Using food as a medium and cooking as the metaphor for action, the primal power of cooking and eating together as a bonding activity helps teach your team essential aspects of time management, communication skills, conflict resolution, project management, and health & wellness.”

Who would have thought that cooking could be the key to creating and participating in a learning experience that both educates and indulges you? Nobody has ever successfully managed to make me enjoy my time in the kitchen, but Victor did! I even shelled 30 prawns (whilst managing to persuade my Managing Director to assist!), splashed them in tequila and set them on fire in the fry pan – a feat I thought I’d never achieve, as my distaste for preparing food has always got in the way! My new team mates, who demonstrated both competitiveness and cooperativeness, also contributed in helping to open the cooking window in my wall for me. As a result, we created an amazing looking and delicious tasting menu, and thoroughly enjoyed devouring every last plate!

I am nesting nicely into my new job (now three weeks in) and I am turning my cooking window into a door by organising a social night with my girlfriends, where we’ll all be signing up to another Victor’s Food cooking class very soon! A small business can have a very big impact in a person’s life. You just never know when a new and exciting opportunity will come along and change your world. I’ve just acquired a new hobby! What is it that YOU want to be starting? Let others help you open those windows – and soon, instead of standing in a room full of walls, you’ll be standing in a hall full of doors, with endless possibilities to delight and entice you outside of your comfort zone!

Our family matriarch was Auntie Dorrie. She was the keeper of the family history, folklore and myths. Nothing written down of course, she knew the family tree, who was doing what and who had done what to whom. Not only did she know the stories but she shared them with us – often to our dismay – over and over and over again. When she died a lot of the stories went with her.

With my siblings I have adopted a similar role, I know the funny anecdotes, the sad stories and the milestones of our family. For a lot of them I wasn’t even born but I tell them like I was there.

I now tell these stories to my own sons and from them, they understand how our family works and what we value.

Shouldn’t this be the same for your brand? Often in organisations there is someone who knows the company folklore but it is never heard outside the walls of the business.

Shouldn’t you have your own matriarch (or patriarch) who is responsible for telling the stories about your brand  – to the people who matter – your customers. Stories that are rich, engaging and emotional that really demonstrate what makes your brand special. Stories that can be shared between friends and families, enriched by their own experiences which then come full circle to further build your brand.

But remember, when it’s time for your matriarch to move on to a better life, ensure that there is someone or something there to pick up the mantle.

For my family? I’ve sorted through my deceased parent’s photos and love letters and will use them to start a website. Then their children and grandchildren (and great grandchildren) can add their own stories continuing the family story. More importantly it will be easily shared and won’t go to dust when the matriarch decides its time to move on!

I’ve been in love with the internet since my uncle introduced me to it in the 1980s.

He was using things called ‘email’, ‘bulletin boards’ and ‘newsgroups’ as a way of sharing information with other scientists around the world. At the time, I swore to my parents that after I graduated with a degree in journalism, I wouldn’t have to work in an office; instead, I could file stories from anywhere I felt like, a bit like a one-man news wire service.

As for human relationships, distances would matter less if we had the technology to meaningfully interact with other people in real time, regardless of location. Possibly with video phones.

Ha!

What I hadn’t predicted was that by the time I graduated in the mid-90s, the internet would not only help us share more
information, more quickly, it would also help us access – and in some cases, publish – a thing called ‘multimedia’, which in the 80s was a term mostly used to describe the clunky CD-ROMs.

Oh, and who knew that internet tech would make it easier for money to change hands faster than you could say “how much is that hard-to-find limited edition object of desire in the window?”

So, what’s the net for now?

It’s easy to spend plenty of time online; there are millions of lifetimes worth of stuff there already. Some of it’s awesomely good.

Or at least useful. Or thought provoking. (But that doesn’t mean the death of print/television/cinemas – yet.)
It’s also easy to spend plenty of money online. It’s normal, now.

So, given that it’s easy to buy things online, there’s a kind of logic that says it’s easy to make money.
Well, sort of. It depends on what you’re selling. And how you’re doing it.

Right now… I’m looking for Australia’s (mostly) unsung heroes of online.

One-person online shops/galleries (pro blogs too, but the content better be damn good). They need to be making more than enough money to support the owner. They need to have a good story to tell.

I’m back editing Nett Magazine again — can you tell?

80:20 rules, K.I.S.S theories and so on…..One saying remains true, knowledge is power. I’m relatively new here to the team at HS3 and as such I’ve had to come up to speed extremely quickly.

Fortunately I live in a digital age, where information on anything and everything is readily available….I just need to go find it! Due to the joys of tools, such as Google, LinkedIn and news sites I can find out, who competes with who, names of decision makers. Geez I can even find out if they like cats…

Working in a conceptual sales environment, knowledge truly is power. If I can fully understand how “B” wants to communicate “2″ “B” the rest is easy. Whether it’s B2B, B2C and everything in between, the same rules apply.

Information is your friend, just go find it and make it yours!

Wandering through the shopping centre the other day, intent on getting out as quickly as possible, I saw from the corner of my eye a couple standing in the home wares shop. The reason they caught my eye was the way they were standing. The gent was clearly bored or agitated—he was not closely involved in whatever was happening in the store. His partner had found a salad bowl that she liked, and, having picked up the salad utensils meant to complement it, was tossing an imaginary salad.

This wouldn’t have warranted a double take if it weren’t for how intent she was on this ephemeral dish. It was clear that the salad held great importance for her.

What was she envisioning as she intently practiced the invisible salad toss? Was she imagining herself hosting a midsummer Sunday lunch, surrounded by friends, bottles of chilled Riesling, with a beautiful Caesar salad in her spectacular new designer bowl? Perhaps she was determined to convince her partner to invest in the hypothetical world in which they owned a beautiful salad receptacle, and the good times that such ownership would entail…

It doesn’t matter—we’ll never know. The point is she was creating a narrative in her head that was fuelled by and hinged on the prospect of a purchase. Something about the utensil had engaged her desire for a story that she felt she could identify with.

They bought the bowl. And the utensils.

This is the power of the narrative. Engage your audience with a story that speaks to their desires, that presents a human element they can identify with and project a part of themselves into. Suddenly, they switch from an indifferent punter to being an emotionally engaged customer. Your customer.